🎙 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's remarks on the Bucha hoax during at the Fourth International Forum “Dialogue on Fakes” (Moscow, September 22, 2026)

💬 Sergey Lavrov: Last week, the International Public Tribunal on the Crimes of Ukrainian Neo-Nazis published the initial findings of its investigation into the “Bucha massacre”. They were announced and presented on September 17 at the TASS press centre, with the participation of the Tribunal’s Chairman and member of the Civic Chamber of Russia Maxim Grigoryev.

👉 Read the full report

This report, which will be distributed at this Forum, examines the names inscribed on the memorial in Bucha. According to repeated statements by representatives of Zelensky’s office, all those who died were “exclusively civilians”, with no connection to the military.

❗️ This is an outright lie. Even a preliminary analysis of the names inscribed on the memorial yields very interesting results. Based solely on open sources – let me emphasise that once again – it has been established that the memorial includes dozens of names of Ukrainian armed forces personnel, members of Ukraine’s Security Service, “territorial defence” units, police and national guard, including militants from the neo-Nazi Azov battalion.

More than 70 names have no digital footprint whatsoever, which is virtually impossible in today’s world. These facts debunk the fake of hundreds of civilians allegedly killed in Bucha.

I think even the most trusting ordinary European should find it strange that, over all these years, the UN Secretariat and Western media outlets that call themselves “professional” have failed to expose this fabrication. I am almost certain that this was not because they lacked interest, but because they were part of the operation to conceal the truth.

It is important to stress that the fact-checking for this report relied primarily on Ukrainian databases, Ukrainian media sources, government portals and specialised Ukrainian websites that published obituaries of individuals who were clearly not civilians.

Clearly, in today’s world, attempts are made to retroactively remove information that has entered the public domain. Yet four years have passed, and nobody even thought to try to remove the traces of this fabrication.

☝️ We therefore have firm assurances that every finding of the investigation, whose results will be distributed here, is supported by data from several sources. They are available for independent verification.

Sergey Lavrov's full remarks